if your goal is to get jacked – forget the reps

In my workouts I’ll put down numbers for reps, like 10 reps in 3 sets. Please keep this in your memory: the goal is 10 reps, so choose a weight that you think you’ll fail at 10, if you fail before great! If it takes a couple more reps to fail then that’s fine as well.

Some trainers or programs will tell you to stick to the numbers, but what’s the point?

Get ready for this: muscle growth happens when you rest and let your body recover, but most of the breaking down of the muscle which allows muscle growth happens in the last 1-2 reps, the painful reps where you’d rather quit, the reps that occur at or right before you fail.

When your muscles are put under the absolute most amount of stress, this is where you’re going to make the most progress; this happens at failure. But if you take away the failure aspect, and just lift to a certain number, then you’re not going to break down your muscles in the same way, and you’re not going to get the same results.

Some trainers will say that you don’t always want to lift to failure, why not?

They say it’s putting too much stress on your body. Well, I guess that’s true if you’re lifting 5 or 6 times during the week for an hour or more each session, as most trainers have their clients doing. But we’re going to lift smarter than that, we’re going to put our muscles under the most stress we possibly can, and allow our bodies as much recovery as we possibly can.

Some trainers won’t have you going to failure, but they’ll have you workout 6 hours a week. This won’t push your muscles to the levels they should be pushed at each set, but at the same time it won’t allow your body to recover and repair the muscles you have broken down.

It makes no sense. It’s like training for sprints, but running a marathon every day. To be an effective sprinter you need power, muscle and explosiveness, while marathon runners need endurance, muscle is a hindrance.

Think of a sculpture. Working out so often, with less intensity is like a sculpture chipping away at a slab of marble with dull tools. They know that their tools are dull so they have to set aside a large amount of time everyday in order to finish the project. But because they have to spend so much time working, they’re not going to be as intense. They may finish the project, but it will take them way more time than it would had they been given the best tools available.

You don’t have to spend hours chipping away at your project, your body. You’re going to be rested and vibrant to attack ‘the marble’ with an intensity that will allow you to only spend a few hours a week on it, but you’ll get there that much faster.

I guess my mantra should be quality over quantity. Why spend hours a week doing an average workout, getting average results, with average intensity when you can spend just a couple, or a few hours doing a great workout with hard work and extreme intensity?

The better the quality of your workouts, the better your results will be and the better you will feel about how you look and how you feel.

Time is one of the greatest gifts we have, I’m going to show you how to make the most of it in the gym so you can make the most of it in life.

About Chad Howse

chadhowse Chad's mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live. He’s a former 9-5er turned entrepreneur, a former scrawny amateur boxer turned muscular published fitness author. He’ll give you the kick in the ass needed to help you live a big, ambitious life.